Show the apal great flood in bus rus Russia ilai 4 one of Rus bus kusaila sias gloomiest gloo anniversaries ver saries la Is the of abery the aeh by her reckoning on which bt st 1 petersburg was overwhelmed by the most devastating flood which it has ever known that of 1824 during the three pre PrO previous days a very strung airing ng westerly wind had forced back the floating fee of the gulf into the mouth of the neva in such quantities as completely block the river liver at that time swollen to an unprecedented height by one of those sudden thaws which often occur at the beginning of the Rus bus balaian winter I 1 the water continued to rise so rapidly that during the whole night of the v style watchmen we were re stationed along the bank while the ringing of beils bells and the bring firing of alarm guns was unceasing many of the tho inhabitants fearing the fhe wo worst rs t 1 got together such of their belon belongings ga ng as they could carry off and tied fled for I 1 their lives 1 1 hey hek were not an tin hour too soon early on the following morning the river burst buret its banks the canals overflowed at the same time and within a few hours two thirds ot of the main city was under water tho the houses upon the low lying islands beyond the river were even more completely submerged and the air was nil fil filled ledwith with the crash of falling failing buildings the shrieks of women and children the an incessant assant booming of signal guns from the citadel and the roar of the tho surging waters which as they deepened whirled along wagons barges sentry sen een try boxes box ess loads of hay bay and the corpses of men and beasts toward afternoon boats began to ply t through brough the streets in order to re rescue 8 eue cue the I 1 inmates a of the threatened house hons sand esaud the reigning czar alexander I 1 was himself among the foremost ih the good work worl but bat notwithstanding all efforts as well syell as the rapid subsiding of tue the flood toward night bight fall the havoc was very great up ward of buildings were destroyed in st petersburg alone and lives jost lost without recko reckoning ning hing uhe the scores taken refuge upon the trees in tu the admiralty square escaped the flood only to perish miserably by the merciless froat of 0 the succeeding night the height of the inundation is still marked by a red line painted on the houses which flank the river with ho the significant date ath november 1824 11 N Y |